


The Death's District

by DragomirPrincess



Category: Original Work
Genre: Child Death, Dystopia, Gen, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-20
Updated: 2013-09-20
Packaged: 2017-12-27 03:31:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/973791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragomirPrincess/pseuds/DragomirPrincess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a school project for which my teacher ordered us to write a shortstory including a sentence out of Cormac McCarthys "A Ruined City".<br/>Since I always wanted to write something on English I was quite happy about this and just wanted to upload it hear, so maybe someone can tell me how bad I really am ;D No, I just hoped for a little feedback if my English is understandable since I'm a native German speaker.<br/>The story deals with orphans living in the sewerage of an outer district full of danger, hunger and injurous circumstances.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Death's District

**Author's Note:**

> The given sentence was:   
> "They looked for shoes but there were none. They shuffled through the trash but there was nothing there of any use to them. "

They looked for shoes but there were none. They shuffled through the trash but there was nothing there of any use to them. No clothing, nothing burnable that would not create toxic smoke. Not even something edible.  
The boys looked at each other over the useless trash bins, hungry faces painted dirty by the years of homeless life on this streets so unfriendly to any kind of living creature.  
Their stomachs growled and some gulped to stop the hungry watering of their mouths.  
Jay stared at the giant wall, seemingly ending only a few yards away from the darkness of the nights endless sky. The massive stone wall bordered the big street this small alley was leading to. And behind it the children could see the ever blooming lights of a society of villas and mansions living in their own world of prosperity.  
"It's just no fair, ne?" He growled. "Why are they livin' like that an' we're not getting anythin' of it. Y'know what I mean, ne? They're throwin' so much away an' burn it instead of givin' some to us."  
Some of the boys nodded in agreement, some looked to the floor.  
"It'll never change, Jay." Rick did not look to the floor but to his old friend. His eyes were cold and kind of dead, lifeless and depressed. Once lively and glittering in a soft blue they became darker with every one of his friends dying in front of his eyes. He did not wanted to live like a wild animal anymore. His fighting spirit was extinguished, he just lived because life hasn't been grateful enough to end his existence.  
Jay did not answer. He was stopped by the crashing sounds of old, rusty metal against walls, shattered glass and other metal. Then the sound of a metal pipe smashing against an already broken streetlight which had not burned for years by now.  
This noises of destruction were followed by deep voices, some a little slurring but mainly just aggressive. They laughed loudly over some words that sounded a lot like a slain woman and a lot of blood and rape.  
Ricks heart started beating like crazy. They had been in the East District! How did they reached this place so fast?! He had been sure that they would be save here as long as they would hurry searching.  
"Hide." He ordered quietly hissing and pushing the smaller ones backwards into the shadows of the mostly crumbled but high buildings. He needed to protect them.  
Not until he himself was standing in the darkness, Rick realized that Jay was still standing in the part of the alley lighted by the lights of the city.  
"Jay?`", he asked lowly. Then he growled the name a little angry about his behavior: "They'll see you!"  
"Jay!" But the other boy did not react.  
"No, Rick, I won't. Will not back away any more."  
Suddenly Jay turned around, his face gravely serious, his voice rising, when he continued speaking: "Will not hide! I won't let them win! I'm not scared!"  
He looked directly into Ricks eyes: "Y'know, I'll die. But I'll die fightin'!"  
His last words echoed in the dark.  
Fightin', fightin' ... fightin'… fight…  
The voices on the main road had stopped, low words and then they laughed. They laughed, happy about a new victim to kill.  
They heard him, Rick noticed alarmed.  
"Run!", he screamed at the children hiding behind his body.  
One last time he looked at his old friend and knew that Jay would not flee. He turned around and grabbed the small boy, who's leg was disabled because of the toxin he consumed for long years eating plants that were growing on poisoned ground. He pulled the fragile body on his back and started running in the opposite direction of the main road.  
He only stopped after reaching the entrance of the sewerage where he helped the children getting inside the only save place for them to hide.  
Then he looked back.  
Back into the encompassing darkness.  
Back into the direction he left Jay to his inevitable death.  
Jay…  
There were no stars shining down at him. Nothing giving him comfort.  
His last friend died tonight.  
He died for the utopia of being able to give all the orphans of this streets a better future. But these dirty children of the outer districts would never be able to reach the inner city of the rich. They would not even be able to touch the giant doors leading inside.  
But… Jay…  
He was dead…  
A tear trickled down his cheek and he swallowed hard.  
Wind brushed over his body making him shiver in his thin clothes.  
Then he coughed. He coughed hard because of the dirty air entering his lungs.  
It hurt badly. His inside arched. And then he knew. He would follow Jay soon. Not because he wanted to kill himself. Not because of the hunger - he had endured even harder times - but because of the acid gases flowing through the air that he has breathed in every second of his life. They were corroding his body from his inside. His lungs and every other organ.  
Jay had known this too.  
The children did not but they would learn it.  
In this world they grew up the dead always only one step from them and never able to eskape his fangs.  
Jay…  
"I will fight too."


End file.
